The “mammatus” clouds were spotted in Pangasinan before nightfall on Friday. PHOTOS contributed to INQUIRER.net by Holden Kirby Valdez, Chastine De Guzman and Denver Bianan.
MANILA, Philippines – Are those pink hills in the sky?
It would seem to be, but it was a rare cloud formation that stunned residents of San Carlos city, Pangasinan shortly before nightfall on Friday.
This photo provided to INQUIRER.net by Holden Kirby Valdez, Chastine De Guzman and Denver Bianan shows the cloud formation pink and bulgy across the darkening sky.
Valdez said he remembered the Chocolate Hills – this time, Pink hills – when he saw the cloud formation.
“If you look at the picture, it looked like pink clouds forming hills,” he said in Filipino.
He said he has not seen such a cloud formation before.
According to the American Meteorological Society study, the rare cloud formation is called “mammatus clouds,” defined in the study as clouds that appear like “hanging protuberances, like pouches, on the undersurface of a cloud.”
The cloud formation is formed when the sinking air is cooler than the air around it, according to the Earth Observatory of NASA, adding that the sinking air must have a high water or ice content.
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